>
> Oregon has made the firmest commitment of any state to protect farmland and
> farming. With its population increasing by 50,000 to 60,000 per year, the
> pressures for non-farm use of land are great. Most agriculture cannot
> compete for land with developers without the advantage of strong land use
> programs.
>
Now that's one of the scariest things I've heard lately :-) If Oregon's
committed what in the freak does uncommitted look like? It's awful out
here. I went away from the Portland area in 1991 and came back in 1995
(yes I can't seem to leave for good :-) The loss in farms around the metro
area was astounding to me. They have this thing in the portland area
called the Urban Growth Boundary...thing is from what we can tell it
should be called the Moveable Developer's Feast as it always seems to
shimmy over there or shimmy over here so they can pave a new
development... I was at a small farm conference up in Port Townsend in
'97 wish I could remember the stats...just awful. Really and truly...
Another thing to look at is the water and well issue...So like there's
this law which says you can have a well for home use and irrigate up to a
half an acre with some atrocious amount of water (can't remember the
gallons/day right now) BuT you can't use this 1/2 acre of irrigated land
to grow anything to sell...regardless of how little water is used... (I
use city water to irrigate about 1/3-1/2 acre and have a fairly precise
meter...just for kicks we figured out that what is allowable from a well
for "residential use" in one week is MORE than what we use in a year
irrigating and harvesting cut flowers from our plot...) (Similar developer
friendly water/well statues up in Wash state.)
Now there are serious water issues in Oregon...We're heading to one of
those places where though we get seasonal deluges we're drought ridden the
rest of the year if we don't figure out our water issues pronto. I say
this and people think I'm crazy. Heck, I am carazy and I'm right! And,
agriculture needs to be responsible for their water usage. But, gosh
darnit so does dang development...And, if that law about wells doesn't
encouarge wanton development and discourage sensible small-scale backyard
growers...heck I don't know what does....Yup, i've worked myself into a
tooting frenzy.
For goodness sake they've got a moratorium on development in McMinniville
because they can't meet their water needs (remember in the Willamette
Valley we get good steady rain from Oct-June). But, meanwhile, to meet the
current needs they're drilling more wells. Tapping more water fgaster than
it can replenished.
Central and Eastern Oregon where they are semi-arid steppelands and
mountains mostly, has even worse situation...
Every winter there are more and more landslides in the wet parts of the
state...houses come crashing down into trees...and still people are busy
building "mansions with views of the plain(s)folk...they put up all this
erosion control fabric and plant stupid grass where there used to be trees
and wonder why the house falls down.
I will stop ranting. But, if you're right that Oregon's ag friendly, then
we're really, really in deep doggie doo. No kidding. Deeper than I
can stand to think about.
Sigh, apologies for the rant,
:-)
eliza
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